If you happened to stop by my post earlier this week about the Asha 308 unboxing; I commented that the new “full touch UI” on the higher end S40 devices bears some striking similarities to Meego and Symbian/Nokia Belle. I now take that back; S40 is like a Meego skin on Symbian on a 1Ghz processor, in other words it’s pretty damn awesome (keep in mind that all these devices are sub $100).

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Instantly from the new lock screen you see the inspiration that comes from Belle FP2 (or vice versa), where you “swipe” to the side to unlock. After which you’re greeted with 3 screens (sounds familiar?) but instead of the Multitasking screen of the N9 you have a dialer screen dedicated to telephony functions.

Hey, my name's Ali- Currently a fifth (and final) year Dental Student from Chicago; studying in Jordan. I love all sorts of gadgets almost as much as I love my cookies! Be sure to follow my Twitter handle @AliQudsi and Subcribe to my Youtube for the latest videos - no pressure. Thanks.

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WhiteAdy

Cool! Thanks for the unboxing&demo Does it have an in-built file browser? And does it connect to a PC/Laptop with mass storage mode?
Also, this may sound like a weird question but can you put a medium-sized tile in your Lumia 920 on the middle of the screen? (Where theoretically would leave a space for a small-sized tile on each side) I haven’t seen anybody doing that in videos.

http://aligonemobile.blogspot.com/ Aliqudsi

Bummer is that the phone doesn’t have WiFi, data connection only. Will look into both of those and get back to you.

At least I could spot an app called “files” in the video. You can see it when Ali is adding a shortcut to the home screen, around 2:17.

Marc Aurel

Yes, it does have a file browser/manager just like all Series 40 phones.

Svenkka

My Asha 311 connects both in massmedia mode and using Nokia Suite. There is a built-in browser using the Xpress technology, i.e. cloud computing to minimize the kbits used. Asha 311 has also WIFI, as 309, but 308 does not. 308 has hot-swappable dual-SIM, 309 is a single-SIM device.

Marc Aurel

There are also the 305 and 306, which have less memory than the 308/309 and a resistive touch screen (but multi-touch capable!). And of course even lower price.